This invention relates generally to escape ladders and more particularly to escape ladders and housing assemblies for multi-story buildings fitted into a housing adapted to be mounted on the interior of a building under a window.
Various constructions have been proposed for escape ladders for buildings that can be deployed for use. One type of such escape ladders uses a ladder comprising a pair of flexible side members with a plurality of step members extending between the flexible side members at spaced apart intervals. Various flexible side members have been used such as cables or chains. The following prior art patents are exemplary of the various constructions proposed in the past:
______________________________________ U.S. Pat. No. Inventor Issue Date ______________________________________ 3900081 F. Dunston 8/1975 3946833 J. Riehlmann 3/1976 3997026 J. Riehlmann 12/1976 4127184 R. Strohmeyer 11/11978 4164991 A. Marra 8/1979 4245717 D. Soucy 1/1981 4381046 R. Landem 4/1983 4401183 E. Schler 8/1983 4445589 B. Longenecker 5/1984 4476957 H. Ory 10/1984 4531612 J. Sandor 7/1985 4702347 A. Nilsen 10/1987 4951779 C. Tseng 8/1990 5022491 J. Gill 6/1991 5311965 H. Wu 5/1994 5339920 G. Eriksson 8/1994 5377778 T. Lan 1/1995 ______________________________________
These prior art fire escape ladders are relatively complicated and therefore difficult and cumbersome to use. Moreover, many of these prior art fire escape ladders are not permanently attached to the building structure thereby increasing the likelihood of dislodgement during use. On those prior art escape ladders that are attached to the building structure, the interconnection is such that high load stress points are created that contribute to failure when the ladder is loaded.